Ok so I've been shugging off and on (sometimes more off than on) for a couple of months now, and my basic routine is pretty established so I figured I'd go ahead and post it.

For now I use an 8lb shovelglove since I didn't want to overdo it at the start and blow the habit training. Unfortunately more than once I've gone 2 weeks with only doing it once or maybe twice. Stupid procrastination!

"Chopping Ab Killer" is a variant on the Ab Killer move referenced elsewhere. From the Chop the Tree starting position, sweep down and across in an arc to the opposite side, until the shovelglove is parallel with the floor and sweeping past the opposite hip. Use a torso twist with it. I love this move. My wife taught it to me, and all along I thought this was the normal tree chopping move. Imagine chopping a tree horizontally rather than the more vertical movement in Reinhard's video and you've got the move perfectly.

I listed Fence Posts here, but frankly I'm tired of that move. Besides, it puts heavy shoulder movements back-to-back with the Chop movement. The last couple of nights I've done Hindu Pushups instead, and prefer that. Still a tough shoulder workout, but at least it's not slinging a weight on a stick for a few seconds.

Churn Butter and Tuck Bales are done with deep squats, so these are all-body exercises. Squat on the down motion, up on the up motion. Simple. Sometimes I vary it also and do them one-handed -- very shakily, with lots of guidance from the other hand! And sometimes I'm tired and don't squat and just lazily sling it up and down.

I've read elsewhere the workout should be (or at least feel) aerobic, but for me that's not normally the case. Often I barely sweat. Sometimes I'm tired and don't even want to finish. Other times I'm into it and will do 52 reps of some of the moves (like shoveling). I expect if I up the weight I will find out what sweating through SG is like...

I also don't always finish more than 2 sets of this workout. Tonight I only did 1, plus a little fiddling around at the end. Still a good workout.

Finally, the workout is staggered to break up the movements a bit: heavy core movement (shoveling), heavy shoulder/chest (fireman), and then total body (churn butter). This seems to be easier for me._________________"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." -- Confucius, an early Everyday Systems pioneer

As for progress, what I've noticed the most, besides generally bigger shoulders, is that when I do pushups I can do them elbows-in (grazing ribs) and go deep, whereas before I could only really do them with elbows bowed out. Back is also very tight and I don't sag. I can only do about 20 and form is not "perfect" but it's a lot better than it used to be. A month or so ago I cranked out 50 the "old" way, but the "right" way uses the chest and triceps rather than the shoulders. So just anecdotal evidence that SG works the chest as well.

Also, last night I only did 10 Hindu Pushups, tonight I could do 15. In the middle of my steel-hammer-slinging workout._________________"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." -- Confucius, an early Everyday Systems pioneer